Both of us have been experiencing a bit of a lull in inspiration, and the theme of 'black' was actually harder than I had first thought.

Initially I edited a self-portrait from my archives, an outtake from my 365 Days project, which Marico paired with her image above; and though the images worked together quite well, on seeing Marico's self-portrait, I mentioned I'd also been toying with using an image of bushfire-charred trees from the aftermath of Victoria's Black Saturday.

I went back to those images, selected this one as working best with her self-portrait and best with the theme, and after a quick swap of layout suggested by Marico, here we are.

I decided not to extend my contract with the company I'd been with originally as a temp, then as a direct contractor, since mid-October last year.

I have now ended up working a crazy numbers of hours, including evening shifts, for the Australian Electoral Commission through an agency, in preparation for the Australian federal election taking place this Saturday. I will be working from 5:30pm Saturday until stupid o'clock this coming Sunday morning helping with vote counting, then from next Thursday with more of the same in a different format.

However, I took a time out from work this week from Tuesday to ensure I was able to submit applications for two grants. The first one, due a couple of days ago, is for a three month Australia Council studio residency in Green St, SoHo, NYC, which would be awesome.

The second was for the 2010 Toyota Community Spirit Artist Travel Award, which I was shortlisted for last year. My application includes a proposal for a self-directed residency in NYC as well as an informal mentorship with Aaron Hobson in the Adirondack region of upstate New York, assuming I don't get the Australia Council residency; but primarily covers the residency at Hospitalfield in Arbroath, Scotland, that I have been accepted to undertake next April!

Whether I manage to obtain funding or not, I intend to undertake the Hospitalfield residency, so it gives me something definite to aim for in regard to my intentions to relocate to the UK. The plan now is to head Blighty-ward mid-March next year!

I also have three portraits included in the latest portfolio issue of Color Magazine!

Around all that, I've managed to hit the gym as much as possible and finally feel I'm seeing some results for all my hard work!

As a treat for all my deadline-meeting, residency-procuring, gym-going and long-hour-working, I'm having an easy Friday night of cider and editing. Hope your weekend rocks!

Quite appropriately for week 13 of the Divine Diptych Project I was paired with The Melody Censor for the theme of superstition.

Though we didn't discuss the theme or our images at all beforehand, it turns out we both view most superstitions with a fair bit of skepticism and amusement, so treated this as a fun project.

I had wanted to come up with something much stronger as my image, as I'd previously entertained the thought of doing a series depicting various superstitions, but again, life sort of got in the way.

I love TMC's distorted, wide-eyed image and I love that it appears she is responding in fright to the freaky look on my kitty's face.

You should really follow the link above to check out The Melody Censor's work. She is on her fourth(!) year of the 365 Days Project and regularly wows me with her ability to create alternately beautifully simple and elaborately processed self-portraits.

I finally had a chance to take some self-portraits today, and this is one of them.

I decided not to accept the contract extension offered to me, so I've been back temping since last Wednesday. Thankfully with the Australian federal election coming up, I've had plenty of work to keep me more than busy, and between that and my tax return I should be back on even footing financially in a couple of weeks, after the costs of my road trip in March and my solo exhibition in June / July.

Last night I sent off an application for an independently funded residency in Scotland next year. It would be a fantastic opportunity and a wonderful location, so my fingers are crossed.

If you're in Victoria and would like to drop into the opening of the Corangamarah Art Prize, from 7:30pm on Saturday 7th August, tickets are $20 and available on the door, or beforehand through Colac Area Health. The exhibition will run until Sunday 15th August at Otway Estate Winery and Brewery in Barongarook, near Colac. Unfortunately I won't be able to make it due to distance, but two of my prints will be in the running for the prize.